fish

by Linda M. Crate

blue lagoons swim with fish. my father likes to fish. i never have. i like watching the ribbons swimming through the water. reminds me of the mermaid i wish i could be. i've always loved singing and the ocean breeze. always thought one day i'd be granted fins, but poseidon rejected me. i was no beauty like medusa. perhaps, i was always a gorgon. i turn everything to stone. the moon shown silver with my jealousy and rage, made the ocean seethe with my lyrics against the gods. everything seemed so much simpler as a child. i would look at a fish, and it would be a fish. now it's only the illusive dream i cannot capture, swimming away as easily as old friends walking out of my life. powerless to stop them, i watch them go. blue lagoons swim with fish. but i've never liked fish.